


We're not liars like they are.

by failsafe



Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Depression, F/M, Ficlet, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-25
Updated: 2013-08-25
Packaged: 2017-12-24 14:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/941001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/pseuds/failsafe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even when there's a sad look in her eyes, Raleigh thinks she's beautiful. [With accompanying graphic.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're not liars like they are.

**Author's Note:**

> A tiny scene which may or may not take place after the events of the movie. It was deliberately written to also fit within a romcom/dramedy sort of universe like Silver Linings Playbook to go along with [this graphic](http://butafailsafe.tumblr.com/post/59269842205/jaegar-pilots-rulebook-drama-romance) I made on tumblr. I felt inspired to write it after making the graphic and had intended to put it on the tumblr post, but it got a little longer than I wanted for that purpose. An expansion on my idea that a fusion like this (domestic universe or otherwise) could really work may be forthcoming from me and may not be. Other works inspired by this would be extremely welcome and if anyone wants to flatter me by using this and/or the graphic as a prompt, I'd be very pleased to know about it!

The thing for Raleigh, about Mako, was that no matter how many times he looked at her he was startled. It wasn't just the fact that she was beautiful and that he could read something unbreakable just in the blue tips of her hair. No, there was something about her that just took his breath and made him need to refocus his eyes as if whatever he'd been looking at before had been too dull for him to see it clearly.

She sat upon her bed while he sat with his back leaned against it in the floor. Turning to look up at her, he had to find that moment's center again before he could even speak, his lips parting before there was any hope for sound. She had both hands nursing her bare foot, wiggling her toes a little bit as her fingertips worked along the underside of it. Delicate and melancholy, the strange little activity made Raleigh's chest ache faintly.

He turned and his body pivoted so he was up to his full height from his knees, still knelt down before her when she looked up.

“What's the matter?” he asked, offering her a smile that tried to tell her that whatever it was, it was going to be okay if only by merit of who she was. To him, things ought to have been that simple.

“There's nothing,” she replied, soft and with an attempt at deflecting formality that he detected in the tiny upturn of her lips that was a little sadder than her pensive staring at her toes moments before.

Raleigh didn't even reply. He just kept watching her and gently raised his eyebrows until she looked back up to meet his eyes and exhaled sharply, her smile growing a little sheepishly.

“Everyone looks at us,” she answered, the truth this time as she folded her arms across her knees but leaned forward a little, tucking her chin down to make it easier to keep her eyes level with his. Her hair swung forward under its own weight. Raleigh noticed that they were always perfect, lengthening as her hair grew. Sometimes, it might have seemed for the rest of the world that she neatly fell in line and only considered what she was _supposed_ to do, but Raleigh knew better. Had always known better from the first time he saw her, and while he waited on her to continue, he dared to reach up and catch some of the blue strands of hair, gently crossing them with the black as he wrapped the growing length around his finger. “I know that is not a... bad thing, but they look at us and they think they _know—_ it bothers me. Sometimes.”

“People like to do that,” Raleigh agreed, and as he loosened the thick strand around his finger, he gently bunched her hair to the side of her head, keeping the silky strands pressed to his palm as his hand cradled the side of her head. “Can't say I _blame_ them,” he tried, smiling to punctuate his lame attempt at a compliment as he rose up to get off his knees and perch on the edge of the bed, facing Mako. She wriggled her feet a little and smiled enough to show her teeth to accommodate.

“Raleigh,” she greeted, a little lilt to her voice that carried so much familiarity that it beckoned him to bow his head forward and she lowered her knees to duck hers in, too. Skin touched skin and they fell into a half-familiar position they were learning, their heads pressed together literally when their minds were so close but couldn't _touch_.

“We know the truth, right? We don't need to make it up. So don't... look at what you see in them—good or bad. Doesn't matter. We're not liars like they are.”

The way she nodded, he wondered if she doubted him, but then a silent touch of her mouth told him she didn't.

 


End file.
